The Sashimi robot actually exists, and it is precise when it comes to slicing and dicing.

      Three arms, a GelSight sensor, and surprisingly effective chopstick maneuvering.

      Robots are capable of picking up boxes, sorting packages, and tightening bolts with ease. Some can even walk and run like humans. However, hand a robot a flexible, slippery piece of raw salmon, and it all goes downhill from there.

      A team from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology aimed to address this challenge. They developed the Sashimi-Bot, a three-armed robot that can prepare sashimi from a raw salmon loin without any human chefs involved.

      So, how does the Sashimi-Bot function?

      The task is divided among its three arms. The first arm stabilizes and positions the salmon on the cutting board. The second arm wields a chef’s knife to make the slices. The third arm uses chopsticks to pick up each completed slice and transfer it to a serving tray.

      What elevates this beyond a simple configuration of arms is how the robot acquired its skills. Lead researcher Sverre Herland and the team utilized deep reinforcement learning within a virtual simulation to train the robot.

      This technology allowed the robot to practice thousands of movements and learn via trial and error without interacting with actual fish.

      Does it actually perform well?

      The knife arm is equipped with a GelSight tactile sensor, featuring a soft gel surface with an embedded camera that informs the robot when it makes contact with the cutting board.

      During trials, the robot successfully cut 34 slices of salmon and managed to grasp 26 out of the 28 slices that landed on the cutting board using chopsticks. It also retrieved an additional six slices that had adhered to the knife blade.

      The average time for each cutting cycle was 27.9 seconds. This study was published in npj Robotics (via TechXplore). While most robots excel at handling rigid and predictable items, the Sashimi-Bot signifies a greater advancement in robotics by demonstrating the ability to manage fragile and irregular materials with real-time movements and adjustments.

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      For over five years, Shikhar has diligently simplified advancements in the consumer tech sector and shared them…

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      If you own a Mac, you should try this free, well-designed disk space tool.

      Radix is a free, open-source alternative to commercial disk analyzers for Macs.

      Running low on storage on a Mac is frequent, but Apple’s built-in storage tools can be inadequate at identifying what is actually using space. Users typically receive broad categories, but pinpointing exact folders, downloads, app files, or old projects causing the issue may still require significant effort. Radix is a free, open-source application for Mac that aims to clarify this process. It functions as a disk space analyzer that scans a folder, drive, or volume and presents the findings in an interactive sunburst chart. Instead of manually navigating through folders, users receive a visual summary of how their storage is allocated across their drive.

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